MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Council will take up an amendment to the city’s charter that will replace masculine pronouns with non-gendered language.
For example, “his term of office” would be replaced with “their term of office,” and “his subordinates” would be replaced by “the Manager’s subordinates.”
“This will generally replace the language used in the charter with general terms so it includes everybody who might serve in those city roles,” Attorney Ryan Simonton explained.
The forthcoming ordinance notes that city and state code recognize a word importing the masculine gender may be applied to females as well as males in such instances, but concludes that the charter “should be updated to use non gendered language and avoid any indication or appearance that any person is excluded from serving in such official roles.”
Charter amendments can be adopted in two ways. They can be put on a ballot and supported by a simple majority of city voters, or they can be adopted by council ordinance, but only if no written citizen objections are filed. If an objection is filed, council can either abandon the amendment or put it before the voters.
This is one of a handful of potential charter changes brought forward last fall following a council review of the city’s founding document.
Two of those changes – a new candidate withdrawal deadline for city elections and the number of councilors required to call a special meeting – were passed by ordinance.
A change that would allow council to waive the residency requirement for the city manager received a single written objection, ultimately triggering a 4-3 vote of council to place the matter on the city’s April ballot.
The most debated of the potential changes, which would have eliminated the city’s standalone election and moved the city in line with the county primary, died on Oct. 2 when council voted 4-3 against putting the matter in the hands of the voters.
